COSMOLOGY

1

INTRODUCTION

This red giant star has nearly exhausted all of it's fuel! It's a natural process and the
end result depends on the mass of the star.

CLICK HYPER-GIANT TO
BYPASS INTRODUCTION

If the mass of the star is large enough, it's fight between the explosive power it gives
off versus the gravity it creates which keeps everything in, will
have an unusual ending.

The moon has 1/6th the gravity of the Earth. You should be able to jump up 6 times
as high on the Moon as compared to jumping on the Earth!

Everything has gravity, including the old 486 computer I'm running, to the glasses we
drink from, to the Sun and all the other stars and galaxies. The
difference is the mass.
My computer has no noticable effect on other objects because it is to small. The Earth
has enough gravity to hold the moon in orbit. On the
other hand, the Moon has enough
gravity to have an effect on our oceans in the form of tides. The Sun with it's great size
has enough gravity to keep all the
planets in orbit.

Just imagine something that's even bigger than our Sun. Our Sun is a typical small star
compared to such giant, super giant and hyper giant stars which
also frequent our galaxy
and the Universe. The gravity which they create is enormous!

It's hard for a human being to jump of the earth. I think the current world high jump record
is 2.45m. The enormous thrust which the space shuttle
generates to break our gravity
shows what's needed to do the job. Around 48,000km/hr escape velocity is the speed
required. If a star is large enough, it has the
ability to prevent the escape velocity of light!!

The star is crushed beneath it's own gravity to a very small point, maybe the size of our
Earth, not being able to emit any light and swallowing thing that
comes near it with it's
enormous gravity. This has produced a black hole!

Black hole theory is taught as standard by universities around the world. Pictures taken
by the Hubble Space Telescope show the various candidates at
the centres of others
galaxies.